'At least they have closure': Colorado search and rescue finds missing hunters

First responders from New Mexico headed north last week to help search for two hunters near the Colorado border — a case that ended Thursday when the men’s bodies were found.

Andrew Porter of Asheville, North Carolina, and Ian Stasko of Salt Lake City, Utah, both 25, had been missing for about a week before being found by Colorado search and rescue personnel, Porter’s aunt, Lynne Runkle, said in a GoFundMe page.

“It is with a broken heart and through tears that I give you this update,” she said. “Andrew and Ian have both been found deceased.”

Around 11 a.m. Thursday, the Conejos County Sheriff’s Office announced two men were found 2 miles from the Rio de Los Pinos Trailhead.

Lauri Dodge, New Mexico State Police Search and Rescue incident commander for District 5, said in a phone interview that she was one of several first responders who helped the sheriff’s office look for the men on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“There’s mixed emotions,” she said. “I’m a mother of kids and therefore it hurts my heart to think of burying your child before you die. ... But at the same token ... at least they have closure. We know they can quit searching, stop living in that world and move on with their grief.”

Attempts were made to reach the Conejos County Sheriff’s Office, but they did not respond as of Thursday evening.

On Saturday, Sept. 13, the Conejos County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call of two bow hunters — later identified as Porter and Stasko — who were missing in the Rio Grande National Forest, according to a Wednesday news release from the Conejos County Sheriff’s Office.

Porter and Stasko were in the San Juan Wilderness Area, west of Trujillo Meadows Reservoir, when they failed to check in with their loved ones, deputies said. Deputies located their vehicle along with camping gear and backpacks, “prompting deputies to become concerned due to heavy rain and bad weather.”

Dodge said when news spread about the missing hunters, other hunters reached out telling them they saw Porter and Stasko as recently as Sept. 12.

Air operations, ground teams, dog teams, drone teams and local volunteers all helped with the search, according to the sheriff’s office. Search and rescue operations were put into place with 54 teams, the release states, including those from New Mexico State Police Search and Rescue.

Porter and Stasko’s families put out a $10,000 reward to find the men, which Dodge said “encouraged people to come out of the woodwork” to help.

“We are very grateful to the Conejos County Sheriff’s Department and to all the volunteers for their efforts in finding Andrew and Ian,” Runkle said in the GoFundMe page.

Now, it’s up to the Conejos County Sheriff’s Office and the coroner’s office “to figure out the answers we all want to know,” Dodge said. A cause of death has not been publicly released.